Okay, I've recently hooked up to Pojo's Apprentice League, and I'm not too
happy with what I've seen.  No, I'm not complaining about the program, but
rather the behavior of the people who use it.  Here's the problems:

1.  People use the transmission of IP numbers to hack into computers.  This
happened to me ONCE and was incredibly annoying.  The person did nothing
marmful, except he created a screen that had a large swear word printed in
the center.  This was terribly frustrating, to say the least, particularly
when you're trying to connect with someone to play the game.

2.  People use cards without knowing the rules pertaining to them.  This is
not only a problem with Japanese cards (I'll get to that later), but with
American cards, as well.  People play the cards as written, which is often
wrong or generalized.  When you ask that they check the rules of a card at a
more reliable source (such as Pojo's spoilers)  many of them get angry and
call you a cheater.  You have NO idea HOW many times I have had to explain
the rules pertaining to Elekid (Erekiddo) to someone thinking that you can
use a Naughty Punch and an attack.

3.  People often do not clarify the rules before calling up.  I'd like to
know before-hand if the person is planning on using Japanese cards  (so I can
use my own and get my spoiler handy).  I also ask if Raindance and Haymaker
Variants could be avoided.  I sometimes get "awww, please let me play
Haymaker" while other times I get "OK"  only to findthat my opponent is using
a Wiggly deck.  In case someone asks that Archetypes be banned, its because
they WANT TO HAVE A FUN GAME IN WHICH THEY CAN TRY OUT DECK IDEAS THEY CAN"T
NORMALLY TRY DUE TO A LACK OF CARDS OR TOO MANY ARCHETYPES IN THEIR AREA.  If
someone asks for an archetype-free game, please, by all means, give them it.

4.  Too many people play Japanese cards without reasonable translations. 
Most of the stats given in Apprentice aren't right, even if they ARE printed
in English.  For instance, Devolution Spray's stats say "Choose one of your
in-play pokemon and devolve it.  You shouldn't use this card anyway, so it
doesn't matter."  Puh-lease!!  If you DO choose to use Apprentice, have a
spoiler handy, especially if you or your opponent uses Japanese cards.

5.  People who simply cheat.  I've played several of these, and whenever they
win, they DEMAND you report the loss.  Dealing with these people are the
hardest, because the second you prove them wrong, the begin to accuse YOU of
cheating.  There are those who state that Pluspower takes place BEFORE
weakness or resistance, that Smokescreen doesn't wear off EVEN IF YOU REPLACE
THE SMOKESCREENED POKEMON WITH A DIFFERENT POKEMON, or that Dark Vileplume's
power only applies to you, not them.  Arguing with these people often takes
more time than the actual game.

6.  Immature people in the IRC chatroom.  There are plenty of these,
swearing, calling names, and being altogether immature. 

7.  People who take winning too seriously.  There are those people who win
and yell "REPORT THE LOSS" before you can wish them a good game.  Or those
people who just hang up when they lost.  Please, it isn't like this is for
money or anything, it is a little online league that's there so those of us
who play pokemon can play online.  Simple as that.  It isn't a life or death
contest.

I know, I know, if I have a problem with the Apprentice League, then I should
just not use it, but there are plenty of people out there that ARE perfectly
decent.  However, it's those who decide that it has to be so competitive that
they cheat, are poor sports, or try to decieve their opponent by using poorly
translated cards from Apprentice that ruin the gaming environment. 

Well, that's not REALLY a rant, but it'll have to do.
                                                -FossilMagikarp
Agree?  Disagree?  Like to send email for no particular reason?
        send comments to: Edestus360@aol.com
    send hate mail, junk mail, and viruses to: Getalife@Idontcare.com